Important Topics in General Aptitude

GATE is the national level examination which is conducted every year to tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science. One of the important topics of GATE is General Aptitude. GATE is of 100 marks from which 15 marks comes from General Aptitude. It consists of 10 questions in all – 5 questions carrying 1 mark each and 5 questions carrying 2 marks each. To become proficient in General Aptitude we must be well versed with formulas and short tricks. In this article, we are listing some important topics in General Aptitude with examples in quantitative aptitude and reasoning.

Logical Deduction/Making judgements

One of the most important topics on which 2-4 marks of questions can come. In this questions a mini statement is followed by 4 statements and you have to deduce the most appropriate conclusion form those statements.

Consider the following statements relating to the level of poker play of four players P, Q, R and S.

P always beats Q

R always beats S

III. S loses to P only sometimes

R always loses to Q

Which of the following can be logically inferred from the above statements?

(i) P is likely to beat all the three other players

(ii) S is the absolute worst player in the set

Blood Relations

For this topic, you need to memorize some basic relations like:

Numerical Ability- important topics to cover

Numerical computation

numerical estimation

numerical reasoning and data interpretation.

Number Series

Problems on trains

Time and Work

Area

Set theory

Graphs & DI

Common Patterns in “Number Series” Questions

Squares/Cubes – 1,4,9,16…. OR 1,8,27,64……..

Square root/Cube root – 512, 729, 1000… (cube of 8,9,10…)

Prime Numbers

AP – 1,4,7,10….(d= +3) OR 56,54,52,50..(d= -2)

GP – 3,6,12,24(r = 2)

Combination of 2 or more basic functions- 2+2, 3*2 , 5+3 , 5*3…

Data Interpretation

This is the calculation intensive section consisting of graphs, charts and tables from which data is to be analyzed.

A shaving set company sells 4 different types of razors, Elegance, Smooth, Soft and Executive. Elegance sells at Rs. 48, Smooth at Rs. 63, Soft at Rs. 78 and Executive at Rs. 173 per piece. The table below shows the numbers of each razor sold in each quarter of a year.

Which product contributes the greatest fraction to the revenue of the company in that year?

(A) Elegance (B) Executive (C) Smooth (D) Soft

Time and Work

The three most important and common patterns of questions in this topic are:

Q1. A can do a work in 15 days and B in 20 days. If they work on it together for 4 days, then the fraction of the work that is left is …….

Q2. A is thrice as good as workman as B and therefore is able to finish a job in 60 days less than B. Working together, they can do it in….

Q3. If 6 men and 8 boys can do a piece of work in 10 days while 26 men and 48 boys can do the same in 2 days, the time taken by 15 men and 20 boys in doing the same type of work will be….

Mixtures and allegations

The two most important and common patterns of questions in this topic are:

Q1. A vessel is filled with liquid, 3 parts of which are water and 5 parts syrup. How much of the mixture must be drawn off and replaced with water so that the mixture may be half water and half syrup?

Q2. Tea worth Rs. 126 per kg and Rs. 135 per kg are mixed with a third variety in the ratio 1 : 1 : 2. If the mixture is worth Rs. 153 per kg, the price of the third variety per kg will be?

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